WK Blog

Winstanley Kerridge leaders in Xero accounting

Most of you probably know Neil Sinclair as a keen squash player, family man, and one of six directors of our Blenheim accounting firm, Winstanley Kerridge. What you may not know about Neil, is that he picked up Xero’s Most Valuable Person Award at the annual Xero Conference in Auckland last week.

“We had no warning at all because this award is not open for entry, we were chosen by the Xero team, and had no idea we were even a contender.”

Last year Winstanley Kerridge won the Xero Partner of the Year award for converting more clients over to the cloud-based accounting software than any other firm in the country. In 2012, the year Winstanley Kerridge switched their entire system over to Xero, a former team member, James Galloway, won a Xero Hero award for his knowledge of the system.

According to Xero, the MVP award is given to the individual who has had the most impact on the accountancy profession over the past year.

Kiwi entrepreneur and founder of Xero Rod Drury, said Neil’s the last person he thinks about before falling asleep at night due to his commitment to making sure Xero’s ongoing development is on track.

He really said that. And who said accountants don’t have a sense of humour?

Xero, which is one of the highest valued companies on the NZX, is considered to have revolutionised accounting. Recognition at these levels confirms Winstanley Kerridge’s status as world leaders in modern accounting. As a member of the Xero Partner Advisory Council, Neil has been helping to develop new Xero features and services for the past two-and-a-half years. Most recently he has been evaluating Xero’s new Farming in the Cloud service, which is due to be released mid-year.

“It’s great because Xero use people like me, who are at the coal face using these tools, to drive these new features before they go to market to ensure they are user friendly, efficient and get the job done,” he says.

“It’s pretty exciting, because I see the real tangible ways that these new features can add value to our clients’ businesses.”

“Way back when I first started in accounting, we wanted to be doing more than just compliance, we wanted to work with our clients to increase the value of their business, but it was too time consuming and costly. “Xero has changed all that.”

Winstanley Kerridge converted to Xero two years ago, and since then many of our clients have decided to make the switch too. While we understand the cloud-based system will not suit every business, we’ll continue helping our clients make the change this year, while introducing our agri-business clients to the new Farming in the Cloud service.

Converting to the cloud-based system two years ago was a big move for Winstanley Kerridge. But thanks to the dedication of our hard-working team and our wonderful clients who have been so open to change, we’re excited at the prospect of continuously improving our services and value for our customers and their businesses.